What Good are Words?
by Maudlin Mush
Summary: What if Danny was more upset about Steve refusing to have a postcard from Jersey in his car?


What Good are Words?

Disclaimer: No money changed hands. Just taking 'em out for a drive. Promise to return them lightly bruised. Honest!

Couldn't let those comments Steve made just go by the wayside in a wave of sarcastic bickering...

^-,-^

Danny just stared at his partner.

"Look, I'm a little homesick, I admit it," he said with a smirk. If he couldn't admit it to his partner, then who could he admit it to?

"No one gets homesick for a place like that!" Steve said. "Especially when they live in paradise." He folded the postcard in half and stuck it in the trash sack. He didn't see the wave of pain that broke over his partner's face.

"Stop the car," the shorter man growled.

"What?" incredulous, Steve just stared.

"Just stop the fuckin' car," he shrieked. "NOW!"

Following directions, he slammed the brakes, watching in satisfaction as the passenger nearly cracked his head on the windshield.

"Stopped," he smirked. He did not expect what happened next. His partner snatched the picture of his daughter off the sun flap, opened the door and got out.

"HEY! What the hell are you doing?" Steve yelled as horns began sounding.

"I know you don't like me," the sad reply came. "And I can't be what I'm not. Since my homesickness offends you, the mere existence of Jersey offends you, my existence offends you, I'll get myself back to the Palace and not disturb you any more." And then there was a slamming door and Danno walking into the tourist crowd on the sidewalk and horns blaring around him.

He sat there stunned as cars tried to get around the Camaro. He completely lost Williams in the teeming noontime crowd.

What the hell happened? He'd just pointed out as driver he determined what was distracting, making sure to allude to the distraction of a Jersey postcard. Stated everyone wanted to come to Hawaii. That no one even thought of Jersey as a vacation spot. That it was ridiculous to feel homesick for such a place.

Where Danno fell in love and had a child. Where Danno had worked and developed his career. Became the extremely competent, insightful detective he was. Became the concerned, loving parent he was.

Of course, Danny didn't trust his friend, Nick Taylor, his subordinate from his Seal days. Was that what ticked him off and caused him to be such an ass? Danny had trusted and backed his old partner, Mekka, without question. Yet he'd certainly displayed his distrust of Taylor, questioned his integrity in protecting a dictator.

Steve hated to think, especially when the recalled that Taylor had always followed him everywhere, followed his orders without any question, would lack in integrity. And Nick had never called him psychotic!

Danny questioned. Danny chastised. Danny called him a fucking psychotic bitch.

In his Seal days he would have never tolerated the insubordination. Never allowed anyone to question his authority.

Never had anyone so completely have his back. Never had anyone so concerned about his well-being.

And he was sitting there in the middle of the street with cars honking at him as he let his partner walk away.

As he put the Camaro into drive and move forward he realized just how badly he must have hurt Danny. Completely and thoroughly dissing him. Steve wasn't one for apologies but he guiltily felt he owed a heck of a big one to the haole he called 'partner'.

As he proceeded down the street he craned his neck at the sidewalk, trying to find Danny. After two blocks he gave up and continued back to the office.

"Where's Danny," Chin asked as Steve strode into the command center, various computer screens displaying protestors and conflict.

"He decided to walk," the commander answered, tone slightly challenging.

"Why'd he do that?" Chin persisted. He received a glare but he didn't back down.

"I might have said something to upset him," Steve admitted. Before he could be asked to explain the man in question walked in and completely ignored the tension.

"What do we have?" he asked. Soon they were knee deep planning how to find the woman who'd been seen with the dead organizer and further how to protect a despised dictator and his family.

As the mission unrolled Steve learned several hard lessons. One, old friends weren't necessarily trustworthy. Two, his new team was absolutely the best. Three, Danny had not only been right, not only stuck to his beliefs, not only secured the scene and brought him to the ER for stitches. He also did not say 'I told you so' when Steve apologized for not trusting him.

Of course, he also didn't say much else, driving him to see the dictator fly off to political asylum, driving him back to the office. Vaguely refusing a drink, especially because Steve didn't have his wallet.

In the office Steve watched as Danny competently finish the butt-load of paper work that followed a botched assassination which destroyed one SUV completely and damaged two others then the subsequent load of paper work created by the assault on his home.

And then he called the Governor's office and wrangled with the controller to get money released for Steve for a place to stay until his house was repaired. During this entire time all the head of 5-0 could do was sit and pretend to work on his own paper work and endure the twin glares of Chin and Kono.

"You better apologize, brah!" the older detective hissed as he dumped a completed file on his boss's desk. Before he had the chance, (ok, before he could suck it up and go to Danny), he watched as the man in question spoke with Kono in the hall and then disappeared.

Steve fidgeted with the papers on his desk. His arm hurt (he'd refused anything more than tylenol) and he had a headache. He wondered where his 2IC had gone but didn't have the cajones to ask.

About a half-hour later Danny returned, walked into the office and opened a small paper sack. He shook out two bottles, read the labels then opened each one, taking out pills. These were handed to Steve without comment and his water bottle was pushed towards him.

"Swallow," he was ordered. "Take the antibiotics twice a day, so tomorrow morning will be fine for the next dose. You can take the codeine every four hours if you need it. You'll need it tonight so you can sleep. Kono will drive you home," and he turned and walked out of the office without further comment.

And Steve just sat there with a stoic mask, not a word spoken. As soon as the blond detective was gone Chin stormed in.

"Damn it Steve! Is it so damned hard for you to say 'I'm sorry'?" he snarled. Kono chose that moment to come in.

"Danny left for the day," she reported. "Said his reports were all filed." She tossed a large manilla envelope on the desk. "Money and card for you so you can get a place to stay during renovation." She just stood there with an angry glare on her face.

"Thanks," McGarrett said as he poked at the envelope. Chin crossed his arms and reinforced his glare.

"Thanks? Thanks!" he was beyond furious. "I can't believe you!" and he stormed out of the office. Kono watched her cousin leave then turned to her boss.

"You're making a big mistake," she said. "I know I'm just a rookie, but as good as you are you have some fatal flaws. You need Danny's expertise to help pull off your plans. He balances you."

"I, I admit I went a little overboard today," he hedged.

"A little? Do you know what hoops he had to jump through and will have to jump through with the budget committee after what happened today? The reports he's filed and will have to file?" Kono rolled her eyes. "You may get results, but the only reason you get to keep getting those results is because Danny crosses the t's and dots the i's." She shifted on her feet. "Oh, and because he's a kick-ass partner who ALWAYS has your back."

Now Kono stomped out, slamming the door. Steve glanced at his clock. It was a little after three which meant Danny was picking up Grace for the rest of the afternoon. At least his partner would relax for awhile. Then he could apologize tonight, maybe have Kono drop him off at Danny's. It'd be way easier to do that with Gracie there.

God, he was a damned chicken!

So he puttered through the paperwork, pretending to be finishing up. About 5 Kono wandered back in.

"You about ready?" she asked tersely.

"Uh, yeah," he replied. "Think you can drop me off at Danny's? He has Grace so he can give me a ride home later."

"Sure, I can do that," she grinned, "but Grace won't be there. Her mom made her stay home because of some school project that needed to be done."

"What?" Steve carefully stood up making sure he wasn't going to be dizzy. "Why couldn't Danno work with her?" Kono shrugged.

"Don't know. Do know Danny was way passed pissed," she said.

"Let me give him a call, make sure he's at home," McGarrett decided. He briefly wondered if Danny would even answer the phone if his name showed up on the screen. So he was slightly surprised when a tired, taut voice greeted him.

"Hey, Commander, kind of busy here," he muttered. There was a lot of noise in the background. Included the sound of a monitor beeping.

"Uh, Danny? Where are you?" he asked, confused.

"Alley behind the Varsity," he said. "Hey! Do I really need that?"

"Yes, you could have internal injuries," a patient voice stated. "Doctor's orders." Now Steve was extremely worried.

"Internal injuries? What the hell happened?" he demanded. He heard the phone being fumbled with and a new voice came over the line.

"Who's this?" a no-nonsense voice asked.

"Lt. Cmdr. Steve McGarrett," he stated. "What's wrong with my partner?"

"Cmdr, this is Officer Nephi Pelona," the voice identified. "Seems that your man, Williams, was attacked by a couple of the Acosta gang. They weren't too happy to find him especially after he got a couple of their homies in jail for a stretch. Decided he needed some special handling."

"How bad does it look?" mouth dry, but he managed to ask.

"Eh, at least cracked a couple ribs, lots of soft-tissue damage," Pelona reported. "Gave 'em a good fight, but four against one just doesn't cut it."

"Damn!" Steve cursed.

"Yeah," the officer agreed. "They're taking him to Queens."

"We'll be there," Steve promised. "Can you get his car over there and leave the keys at the nurse's station for me?"

"Yeah, no problem," came the reply. "My partner and I can handle that while the others clean up here."

"You did catch the guys, right?" Steve had to know

"Oh yeah, in the act," he answered. "With the college crowd we have lots of witnesses stepping up."

"Thanks!" Steve snapped the phone off and looked at Kono.

"Danny's been hurt?" she asked as she returned to the door, Chin in tow.

"Yeah, some gang bangers took him on," he said. "We need to get over to Queens." The three 5-0 detectives were soon in the car and heading towards the hospital. Chin parked in the ER lot, leaving the placard identifying their car as a governmental vehicle. Striding into the hospital they converged on the nurse's station.

"Steve McGarrett, 5-0," he flashed his badge. "My partner was brought in." The woman checked out her computer screen.

"He's waiting for x-rays," she reported. "I'll page Dr. Lewis."

"What room is he in?" Chin interrupted her.

"Exam 16," she said off-hand, then found herself staring into empty space. "You can't go in there!" she called. The three team mates were down the hall dodging various staff members. They didn't hesitate when they found the right room.

Danny was laid out on the gurney, a warm blanket covering him. There were various leads on him, his heart beat sketching a 3/4 time on one monitor while oxygen sats were constantly being updated. Two iv bags were piggy-backed through yet another beeping machine. Closed eyes slit open to see who'd come in.

He sighed. Not really wanted to see this group. Especially since he knew McGarrett did not like him. He had been thinking about contacting the Governor to bump him back down to HPD and give a better, native, officer come up. He just closed his eyes and wished he'd had more morphine on board.

"Danno?" Why the hell was the man calling him that? That was Grace's, only Grace's name for him. She was the only one on this god-forsaken island who actually loved him. Not this damned Navy seal.

"I'm sorry, Danno," that caused confused blue eyes to open and stare furiously at the taller man. Sorry for what? The comments earlier or because he'd not managed to get killed? He didn't bother asking.

"I never should have said those things about you and New Jersey," he explained. "I was totally out of line. I'm really sorry." Ok, that rocked Williams's world and now the furor melted into astonishment. He looked to Kono and Chin for confirmation and was met with two encouraging smiles.

"Shit, you do know how to apologize!" he managed to say. His throat was pretty bruised from large hands squeezing it earlier.

"Of course I do!" Steve said a little indignantly.

"Can't prove it by me," Chin said with a smirk.

"Me either," Kono agreed. "Wish I had a recorder!" Now Steve shot them an angry glare. But before he could defend himself Danny started snickering. Which set off Kono. Chin held out for a couple beats, but joined in. Steve had to grin.

"Ok, so maybe this is a first," he grudgingly acknowledge. "You guys know I'm NEVER wrong!"

"You just keep on tellin' yourself that, bro!" Danny chortled.


End file.
